Tuesday, January 17, 2017

What is legitimate?

This week our country transfers power from one President to another. Regardless of who you voted for, the way our country transitions power is pretty incredible. People may not be thrilled with the incoming President, but the transition is peaceful.

There has been a lot of talk since the Election Day that President-elect Trump is not a "legitimate" president. Yesterday hubby and I had a really good conversation about this and what it means to be "legitimate."

First of all, legitimate is an adjective that means according to law; lawful; in accordance with established rules, principles or standards. I used the definitions from dictionary.com.

The United States Constitution has three (3), only three rules for a person to be President. First, they must be at least 35 years old. Second, they must be a natural born US citizen. A person may be born abroad, but only if both parents were citizens of the United States. The only exception to this was for those around at the time the Constitution was adopted. Their requirement was that they had to be a citizen when the Constitution was adopted. The third requirement is the person has to have lived in the United States for at least 14 years to be president. This does not have to be consecutive or even the 14 years leading up to becoming president. (source:americanhistory.about.com)

That's it. Those are the basic minimum requirements to be the President of the United States of America. President-elect Trump meets all of those requirements. Now, he has not followed the norm of previous presidential candidates by not having a legal or political background, releasing his tax returns or completely separate himself from his business ventures. Now recently he has said he has started the process to remove himself from his businesses, but I believe he is planning on having his sons involved in running his business. With Trump's track record of being vague with plans and speaking double speak, I have reservations about his sons being in charge of his business ventures.

Now, is it wrong for a president to make money while in office? No, because all former presidents earn a nice income once they leave office by writing books, going on speaking tours and being consultants in other fields. However, I want the decisions Trump makes in office to be first and foremost beneficial for the country and the American people. What happens if ISIS threatens to blow up a Trump owned building anywhere in the world? Is his response going to be because ISIS is threatening American lives or because it is his property?

So, President-elect Donald Trump is a legitimate president. Is he traditional? Does he follow the norm? No, but it doesn't mean he is not legitimate. The next four years are unknown. Of course, they would still be unknown of the other candidate had won. So this week we need to take a deep breath, say a prayer for the Trump family and our nation as a whole and take a step out in faith.

There is a lot more to discuss and that will happen. One thing to remember, get involved. Find a cause, use your voice, your time, and yes your money to make a difference. Get involved.